This is the weakest league in decades

I think it is pretty clear players 4-10 on rosters today are much more skilled than they were previously. I do think rules and the way they are applied is a little more offensive friendly. Although, allowing zone defense has helped defenses, even in man-to-man defenses, as it is harder than ever to get the ball to the best offensive player in a position for the offensive player to score.

 

somebody must have a program that can run simulations of all-star teams from various years playing against each other. You would just have to stipulate the rules, e.g. on hand checking.

 

I gotta say I've not watched much NBA Cup action this season outside the Rockets. Last season, teams played much harder in cup games than most regular season games. Have teams rested players in cup games this year? I hate the scheduling and courts, but the play last year was fun. The Rockets' games were fun this year, other than losing a couple.

 

What I like about the Cup is that every year there seemed to be a new Winner, yes, the Lakers get the whistle more often not and are almost guaranteed a spot in Elimination Games, other than that, it is okay.

 

The East is actually pretty competitive within itself. They have 9 teams above .500 (as opposed to 7 in the West). Seven of those teams are within one game of each other. Teams like Atlanta, Philly, even the Tatum-less Celtics are surprisingly doing well. The Bucks would have been better if Giannis wasn't missing so many games.

The East vs West records are pretty much the same as in the past two seasons. The disparity is still there but it's not getting any worse.

 

Simply awful. But he’s getting none of the media and fan grief that Harden got for gaming the whistle.

 

I think the middle class and weak teams of the West have gotten weaker. Basically, Clippers have fallen apart and Dallas isn't healthy. OKC, Houston, Denver, and SA look to have gotten much stronger than they were last year. I think the East has been very lucky to be about as good as last season in terms of record with the West, despite Detroit and Boston looking good.

I'm guessing that, going forward this season, the West will win against East teams at a rate better than 0.550.

 

Those kids and their rock and roll music.

DD

 

This is what annoys me the most.

 

I don’t think the league is all that weak. I think that you don’t have as many physically dominant superstar players right now, but a for the most part you’ve largely been able to pencil in who the top teams were going to be throughout the season before the season even began and you could predict the finals teams and the winner with a high rate of success.

NBA has never really had a lot of parity and a bunch of good teams.

I actually think it’s trending towards MORE parity with how things are shaping up. Sure you have OKC as the dominant team, but, to me, they don’t feel unbeatable. I think there are 4-5 teams that have a legit shot at beating them in a 7 game series.

 

I haven't thought about it too deeply, but some of how the league seems to be evolving has to be because of all the 18-20 year olds coming into the league still looking to learn how to play basketball, as well as how they've come up through the system as "showtime"/"and 1" players without actually knowing how to play basketball yet.

I think a lot of these kids are more skilled in terms how to dribble, shoot the ball, etc., but there are aspects of the game that many of them haven't had to do a ton of in high school before their "one and done" years like reading and attacking defenses, making correct passes, thinking at full-speed, sacrificing your own shot for a teammate's better shot, etc.

In the past, 2-4 years of college would get you that. Some of these dudes now don't know when to drive, when to shoot, what to do, etc. The truly elite young ones do, but they're not the majority. The rest of them take 2-3 years, minimum, if ever, to adjust and learn.

Even looking at OKC, they're a damn good team, but have played mostly a trash schedule. The good teams they've played have played them pretty close, I think. Then you have the weird schedules combined with "load management" where you can't look at schedules and see who've they've beaten because you'd have to look deeper to see who actually played in any of the games to see if teams actually beat good teams or if they beat good teams with players missing. lol.

 

Games have changed so much, it's hard to compare. If playing by today's rules, I do believe great 80s teams couldn't defend modern offenses. The constant movement, spacing, and 3-point volume would overwhelm defensive schemes built to protect the paint, not chase shooters.

But modern defenses would handle 80s offenses pretty effectively. They could pack the paint against post-ups and isolations, and today's versatile, switchable defenders are built to contain one-on-one scoring.

Of course, unicorn like MJ could probably break any era.

 

these softy snowflakes today would break down and run to the locker room. dream, shaq, bird, zeke, mj, malones, rodman, etc etc etc etc would dine on bbq chicken at both ends of the floor. and any evolution of offensive defensive schemes would be picked up in less than 2 weeks. OG’s would still have much higher bball iq, stamina, physicality, and will.

 

The middle class of the East are getting better. The top of the West is still far superior to the top of the East though.

 

Yeah, I thought about this too. FWIW, I think Harden started to get the backlash after a few years. It started as "Harden doesn't play defense" if you'll remember. I think it just takes another season or so of SGA dominance before enough fanbases will be burned and everyone will be dogging SGA. I mean his signature move IS an offensive foul.

 

casuals and old heads say the league is weak because the traditional superstars and their teams aren't dominating the league. In reality, rosters are deeper than they have ever been and the talent level is at its highest.

 

Remember the "is he traveling?" thing about his step back 3?

Harden was almost universally hated outside of Rockets fanbase because of those suspicious looking moves that propelled him to an all-time great offensive player.

 

Now it’s universal. I bet lots of AAU coaches are teaching the arm bar push off as I type.

 

i mean... @daywalker02 and i could prolly be bench warmers in the east.